The Savage Girl

by Alex Shakar

In the wake of her sister Ivy's widely publicized suicide attempt, Ursula Van Urden arrives in the metropolis of Middle City with hopes of starting her own life anew. In an attempt to understand the events leading up to her sister's breakdown, Ursula meets Ivy's mysterious boyfriend, Chas Lacouture, and joins his trendspotting firm, Tomorrow, Ltd. Armed with only a sketch pad and the mandate to "find the future," she begins an odyssey into the strangely intoxicating world of trendspotting where one lesson prevails: At the heart of every product lies a paradox, and when cultivated successfully, it yields untold riches. As Ivy's delusions grow stronger and more apocalyptic, Ursula's observations of a filthy, rodent-eating homeless girl -- an urban savage -- lead to an elaborate advertising scheme gone awry that has unexpected consequences.

Genres: Fiction, Adult, Contemporary, Book Club, Cultural, Literature

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 18, 2001

About the author

Shakar was born in and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Yale University in 1990. He was a Michener Fellow at the University of Texas. Shakar attended the University of Illinois and received his Ph.D. in English and Creative Writing.

In 1996, Shakar won the National Fiction Competition and received Pick of the Year from the Independent Presses for City in Love. The Savage Girl was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book and a Book Sense Pick in 2001.

He currently resides in Chicago, Illinois and teaches fiction writing at the University of Illinois.

Reviews

[Lee]

I first learned of The Savage Girl a couple years ago when I googled the word "postirony" in preparation to write my dissertation proposal (on postirony, of course). This debut novel follows a cast of trendspotters as they romp around the cartoon-like Middle City, trying to spot trends before they happen, and trying to find their misplaced souls. I consider this book to be a companion to William Gibson's Pattern Recognition.

To my great pleasure, the novel turned out to be not only very relevant to my project, but also a funny and memorable (itself postironic) almost-satire, a reflection on the condition of elite post-postmodern consumers who simultaneously and paradoxically (i) use consumerist lifestyle choices to define their identities and (ii) feel vaguely uncomfortable with the whole process of defining themselves through lifestyle selection.

A very thought-provoking book, with interesting characters, Shakar's novel is largely a success, although I think the book suffers from a failure to transcend its own theories. That is, aesthetically speaking, the book sometimes betrays the fact that it was produced by someone with a Ph.D. in creative writing. Not that I have any problem with Ph.D.'s--oh, no, definitely not--but in the book theories that should be attributed to characters seem sometimes as if they're coming out of the book's Ur-Mouth--that is, Shakar's mouth--which isn't always a bad mouth for them to be coming out of, since the mouth is attached to a pretty smart fellow. I look forward to his further fictions and hope this aesthetic will mature.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. The second half is more absorbing than the first half, and it becomes one of those books you lose sleep over because you just want to read it til the end. This is one of those books where the ideas stick with you--postirony, the art of trendspotting, the fine and sometimes nonexistent line between bullshit and a marketing strategy. I'm still sort of mulling them over and sometimes find myself analyzing what I see others wearing and doing in terms of what an overall 'trend' would look like and where it would go in the future. (I'm not very good at it.)

There were a few areas in the plot where I felt like loose ends were knotted up a little too neatly, but overall I enjoyed the development of the characters (particularly Ursula and James T. Couch). I do wish that the setting of Mid City were explored a little more--it has such a looming presence in the book but for the most part, I felt pretty detached from the 'urban' or 'cityness' of this story.

I'll be adding Shakar's new novel Luminarium to my to-read list!

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If a candidate for a PhD in marketing were to write a novel as his thesis, The Savage Girl might fit the bill. Therein lies the trouble with this clever novel. Clearly Alex Shakar had done his research and measured the pulse driving marketing at the turn of the millennium, but his characters are hard to fathom.

Maybe all people involved in marketing become soulless robots who look at consumers as witless marks to be conned into buying crap. Perhaps that was the point?

Ivy Van Urden was on a fast track to becoming a supermodel until her relationship with powerful marketing genius Chas Lacouture triggered a psychotic break. Her sister Ursula, aspiring fine artist, arrives in town to look after Ivy and winds up working for Lacouture's trendspotting firm, Tomorrow, Ltd. Soon enough, Ursula's artistic sense combines with her high IQ and she creates and sells a campaign for a weight reducing water based on the "savage girl" she spotted among the homeless of Middle City.

Not long after that, the elements of this prescient tale combine in toxic and preposterous ways. Ivy gets released from the mental hospital when her insurance runs out and becomes the model for the Savage Girl. But she is no saner than when the breakdown occurred, so it all spirals further downward. I don't believe I have read a thriller about marketing before but now I have.

It sounds thrilling right? And it is. Deep thoughts about "postirony" and the dichotomy inherent in creating want weave through societal commentary alongside non-stop action. But Ursula, Ivy, Chas, plus the other main characters just never came alive. For me, the necessary suspension of disbelief required would not remain suspended. It took me days to read the mere 275 pages.

Somewhere past the halfway point a change occurred, possibly the pacing of the plot, possibly Ursula becoming a character I could believe in or care about, and the last 100 pages flew by. Still, though all the loose ends were tied, though the bad guys lost and the less bad guys kind of won, (there are no good guys in this novel) I didn't feel anything but dread for the future. Again, that may have been the point.

Alex Shakar's second novel, Luminarium has just been released. I have read it and it is stunning. His razor sharp intelligence is obvious in The Savage Girl; his ability to assimilate and recombine vast amounts of sociological data is in no doubt. He just needed to work on those characters and in his new novel, he put it all together. I always like reading first novels because they give clues as to where an author is going to go. It was worth reading The Savage Girl for that very reason.

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was OK. It dragged on though and although I would get drawn in I just as quickly lost interest. I think the author tried too hard to make the book be meaningful… he tried too hard to provide an analysis of the state of the world today and where it could go. His language was very heavy and seemed contrived at times. Again, simply stated, the author tried to create a story with a lesson to be learned and in his attempts he stumbled and left me more annoyed than enlightened. I don’t mind “big words” but I don’t like having to re-read paragraphs several times to get the gist of it. I want my reading to be enjoyable – not necessarily a story that is all smiles and happiness but a story that flows naturally and easily, whether or not there is drama and conflict.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting in the way it is written. Hard to get into at first but the story makes it worth persevering. Quite chilling and thought provoking but not for everyone.

[Ariel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me.

[Cris Mazza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Few maie writers could carry this off. Few young writers have this kind of complex vision of society/culture. You may think it's distopian, and maybe it was in 2001, but it hits awfully close to home (now).

[Demetria · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quirkiest observation about conspicuous consumption.

[chambejd / Joy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a very weird read...weird, but interesting. I wouldn't call it a favorite by any means, but it is a different type of story than I usually read so it was a nice change.

[Gretchen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was just not into it.

[S.P. Moss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Without giving away too much, the subject of cryogenics features in “The Savage Girl”, and I felt rather as if I’d defrosted something frozen in time, or opened a time capsule as I read this novel. It was written at the turn of the 21st century, certainly pre-social media and Web 2.0 which makes it oddly quaint in places.

The novel is a satire on marketing, trend-forecasting and the consumer society. Not the sort of book I normally read for leisure, but I’ve worked in advertising and marketing more years than I care to mention, so thought I’d give it a go.

I found the novel quite difficult to get into. Because of its age, a lot of what may have seemed futuristic at the time of writing seems a bit - so what, or what the? - today. One character sits looking at an array of giant computer screens, pulling out patterns. Well, today we have ChatGPT and tomorrow who knows? The characters are by-and-large grotesques - not human enough for you to care about any of them, yet not outrageous enough to be amusing. Sometimes, it all seemed a bit pretentious and just too clever for its own good.

Having said that, there were some excellent ideas along the way. The story forsees lots of stuff going on today - the metaverse and virtualism, shifting truths and echo chamber bubbles. I did cringe at some of the passages evoking those ghastly bullsh*tty brainstormings and insight sessions that I’ve participated in. And the concept of “Paradessence” - paradoxical essence or “two opposing desires that a product satisfies simultaneously” (such as stimulation and relaxation) - is spot on. “The job of a marketer is to cultivate this schismatic core, this broken soul, at the center of every product.”

The question of whether we are heading for the “Light Age” - the optimistic view - or the “Lite Age” was also interesting once I finally got the distinction.

All-in-all, thought-provoking in places, but wish I’d read this novel when it (and I) were 20 years younger.

[CTEP]

This is a novel about Ursula, a trendspotter who lives in the fictional town of Mid City. The novel takes a critical look at marketing and cool hunting, and the casualties of marketing, branding, and commodifying subcultures. The book takes place at a major shift away from irony to postirony. The novel was sort of silly, but had a lot of sharp critique of cool hunting and made me think about how marketing and branding works.

The book relates to my americorps work because I have been trying to work a lot of media literacy workshops and conversations into the Set It Up days that I am planning. I hope that the media that we are making in Set It Up can be, not reactionary to mass media, but at least thoughtfully made. This book gave me more insights (although fictional) at the process at work, and I will also likely suggest the book to some of the Set It Up crew members.

Would I reccomend the book?

Yeah, it was a fun book to read and a change from some of the nonfiction I was reading. Its also a fun way to think about media literacy and being critical of media and marketing. So yeah, you should check it out.

[Pepper McGowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not a good audience to anything even closely resembling science fiction. The beginning of the book was a little bit off-putting to me for the first few pages because it was seemingly going that direction. But I think it is so well written and the characters are not really as extreme or as ordinary as I first saw them to be. ... I was not planning on them staying with ro.long after the last page of the story was turned. I have a lot of actual tenderness for almost everyone in the book because they are all.showing the way that people are definitely a little bit vulnerable and Ithink a lot more capable than we allow ourselves to be or believe those around us ever will be. The reader is really privy only to the perspective of UrSula VanUrden yet to read the full amount of discourse with her and her sister Ivy is a great curious experience because I am wondering how it is that the author, Alex Shakar, is keenly, acutely aware of the way it feels to be a 28 year old girl. Love this book.

[Shazia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Savage Girl is an unusual book, as may be apparent from the reviews. Some people love it, and some people simply do not. I find myself in the middle. I was intrigued by much of the book: the obscured time it is set in (futurish, but not far); middle city city itself (although I wish it was further fleshed out); and the characters Ivy, Ursula, Chas, Javier, and James T. Crouch. The plot, however, was only okay. The book is pretty heavy handed in its judgment of consumer culture - using the things we buy to define ourselves. Not to mention the amorality of marketers. As plots go, this one sputters along. So overall, some interesting things and characters to think about, but not a book I'll be widely recommending.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book should have been a much bigger deal than it was. So many things about this book have stuck with me in the months and years after reading (see paradessence.) It's also so slick in its storytelling. It's one of those "yes, yes tell me more about this esoteric world you're a part of." In this case that world is trendspotting and ultimately, the bones of consumer culture. As a debut novel, this thing sings.

[Grazyna Nawrocka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although the book belongs to the non-fiction genre, I immensely enjoyed reading it. The ideas are brilliant, characters original, and the style smooth. The plot is funny, sad, scary and ridiculous at the same time.

[C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s so much here. It still feels prescient even 17 years on. Strange and alluring.

[Sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nie wiem o co chodzi w tej książce. Jestem ciekawa co autor brał pisząc to

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining Debut Novel on Marketing That Mixes Genres Well

Irresistibly funny and smart, Alex Shakar’s “The Savage Girl”, is a great blend of genres, throwing in elements of fantasy and science fiction into a briskly paced fictional exploration of marketing that is written in a literary style which resembles Don DeLillo and Thomas Pynchon, while also evoking Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jose Luis Borges in its reliance on magical realism. It’s also a fine satirical critique of popular culture as viewed from the lens of marketing, and, as such, compares favorably with William Gibson’s “Blue Ant” trilogy (“Pattern Recognition”, “Spook Country” and “Zero History”) even if it doesn’t quite echo Gibson in the latter’s uncanny ability to make the present day read like an engrossing chapter envisioned by Gibson in one of his early classic cyberpunk science fiction novels and short stories. “The Savage Girl” is set in some alternative reality of the present and near future, in an American city, Middle City, that sits on the slopes of a volcano. In this reality we encounter former art student Ursula Van Urden as she comes to grips with the publicity surrounding her older sister – and celebrated fashion model - Ivy’s suicide attempt and starts her new job as a trend spotter with marketing firm Tomorrow, Limited. She’s told to “find the future” and soon finds it in the form of the “savage girl”, a homeless child who hunts for her food, making her the key aspect of a marketing campaign that goes awry. Shakar’s very well written novel is yet another fine literary debut by a fellow Stuyvesant High School alumnus (e. g. Matt Ruff’s “Fool on the Hill” and David Lipsky’s “The Art Fair”), and one that should remind readers of Gary Shteyngart’s “Super Sad True Love Story” with regards to the latter’s dark humor –tinged post-cyberpunk science fiction.

[GONZA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Era un sacco che non leggevo un libro così particolare, sono proprio contenta, così ho pensato di consigliarvelo assolutamente.
La casa editrice potrebbe, a torto, farvi pensare ad un libro di fantascienza, ma così non è se non nel senso strettissimo del termine, e cioè quello di scienza fantastica o teorie applicate dai nuovi guru del marketing: i trendspotter.
In questo caso la parola sta ad indicare un gruppo di persone, i protagonisti poi del romanzo, tesi alla ricerca ed all'individuazione di nuove mode appunto, nuove tendenze e manie, per trasformarle in prodotti e quindi in profitto.
L'ultima frase del libro mi ha riportato alla mente una di quelle frasette che si potevano trovare nei libri delle formiche "Mangiate merda, milioni di mosche non possono essersi sbagliate" e certe volte non dico che ci siamo vicini, ma quasi.
La prosa scorre, anche se il libro è abbastanza lungo, 334 pagine scritte fitte fitte.
La sensazione è quella di aver scoperchiato un pentolone pieno di specchi; molto di quanto detto è reale in modo terrificante e se non reale quanto meno realistico, ma non è un libro fastidioso, è scritto in modo troppo intelligente, ti fa quasi pensare che se ti accorgi di quello che ti vogliono vendere, magari compri altro, e se in questo modo facessi il loro gioco, e se quello che volessero venderti fosse proprio l'"altro" o se l'unica cosa importante fosse comprare?
Insomma non ve lo so spiegare, molto ruota intorno al concetto di postironia (sempre il concetto di cacca commestibile) e a quello di paradessenza (essenza paradossale di ogni prodotto, per esempio il caffè è stimolante e rilassante: due desideri opposti che promette di soddisfare simultaneamente), siamo tutti superfici sulle quali vengono proiettati i nostri bisogni.
LEGGETELO!

[Selena · Rating 5 out of 5]

i don't know how to properly define it or explain it. it's meant to be about trendspotters and the way consumer culture affects everything. it's so far beyond that. it's almost a book about life. trandessence.

it left a mark on me because it's so true in such a grotesque way. they try to market anything new, foresee the new trend that will not only affect fashion, but lifestyles. it's about affecting the entire person. everything

reminds me of genuine feelings. such an awkward story, an awkward love, an awkward job position. it's all just a little unsettling - but the conclusion is so peaceful. all just very peaceful.

[Readersaurus · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wouldn't normally have picked this one up. It's urban, the adults are all 'broken,' and it's cynical. But I'm pretty sure a friend of mine dated the author in high school. I do like that the main characters are becoming more interesting (rather than less) as the pages go on.

Boy, these characters are hateful. Wouldn't want to go to a party or have a conversation with any of them.

I know it's supposed to be satirical, but the humor is slim and grim. I also felt like the author was giving the reader the same message over and over again. It could have been a compelling, tight short story. Maybe I missed something.

It was better than Maguire's Son of a Witch.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am completely amazed by how both strange and enveloping this novel is. It only vaguely resembles the world we live in, but at the same time the ideas are so thoroughly described that just a few pages in you can imagine living in Middle City, either working as a trendspotter or spotting the trendspotters around town. The ideas seem, paradessencly, so impossible and so close to being that, again, the novel envelopes you quickly, along with the easy, fluid, vivid writing style. While I think I prefer Luminarium, I know this is a novel I will keep thinking about and coming back to for a long time.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was an amazing novel, aside from the plot, it provides great style
you get the feeling the author hones in on all your senses and satiates them completely, puts himself in your shoes and forces you in everyone elses -- people watching and trendspotting, being perceptively aware of others surfaces and depths
every chapter's symbolism is rampant, injecting a car alarms pattern into an annoying situation and forcing you to feel it and deal with it, but conclusively "perfecting the love of humanity" which makes this so unforgettable

[Unky Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent book about what marketing is all about, about how trends can be created, or seized upon, or how one can miss the boat on a trend and yield the capitalization of such a trend to a rival. There was a plot metaphor where this same system was applied to human relationships, but it was heavy-handed and kind of predictable. I believe this is a first novel, and as so, was still commendable.

[Yasmeen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alex Shakar has thus far been impressing me. This is so different from Luminarium; it tackles different problems and is probably more cynical, but I enjoyed it just as much. A lot of people try to criticize consumerism and pop culture, but its a lot harder to do it cleverly while still keeping an emotional connection to the characters and the story itself, and I thought it was pulled off pretty well here.

[Mel Luna · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I thought it was a great story, but that the author's blatant puppeting of every character prevented it from being a great book. More than halfway through it hit a sweet spot, and was a pretty zippy read after that. Certain scenes and turns of phrases and characters have left their impression upon my mind despite my slight grumpiness toward the author.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

About a woman in marketing (well, trend prediction) with a schizophrenic sister, so a little too close to home for my comfort... but very well written and a satisfying read. If you can take the sadness and paranoia.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to get into this book.. I picked it up and put it down quite a few times. But once I finally got into it... wow, it was full on. Still sorting through my thoughts on it. Not sure what to feel! But definitely a fascinating look at consumerism, among other things.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was lukewarm on the plot, but enjoyed the writing itself. The discussion of "post-irony" seemed oddly relevant given the recent election. I highlighted a few passages dealing with alienation and detachment that resonated with me.